Point Spread

    The skull in the box is that of Cornelius A. Burleigh, the first man to be hanged in London, Ontario, August 19, 1830. The public hanging attracted an audience of over 3,000 when the village of London numbered only a few hundred. Because the rope broke, he was hanged twice! The top of the skull was taken on a world tour by Dr. O.S. Fowler, a phrenologist.
    This part of the skull was presented to the Harris family.
    (Eldon House brochure)

    Off memory
    & a dare,
    the grave man
    coming to a bitter end.
    Burleigh, top of his
    skull reminiscent of a laundry cup
    (or toothpaste cap) separated from
    its yellowing, rightful owner.
    No jaws of life here -
    rather vengeance beyond death,
    shellac & varnish twist shoved
    to the withering bone.

    Phrenology,
    sinister "fin de siecle" fingering
    of the intellect's character
    through guru-dimensions of the head,
    (pseudo-savant/skulduggery clairvoyant).

    Thimble-full thinker, sleight of hand
    smoke'n mirror trophy hunters
    boisterous crowd in a
    "hanging mood". Coins
    flip on the outcome
    while town drunks reel;

    The village idiot getting
    into the "swing" of things. Point spread
    across the yawn
    of death ...
    brittle behaviour,
    the sharp edge of beetles
    clicking in the dark.

    And I thought
    of institutionalized evil
    & rabid passion for revenge
    pursued beyond the final resting place -
    most private skeletal remains
    held up as curios. Medieval burning of a heretic's bones,
    manure pile for those decried damned;
    the cross-roads
    drive your cart over the
    bones of the dead,
    the remembered suicide's end.

    Not so strange
    given human nature,
    Lord Byron's silver drinking cup
    runaway Ethiopian slave
    (twisted paean to romance)
    or Hand of Glory,
    corpse-fresh from the gibbet &
    famed forges of France.
    Hair strands as in under
    a magnifying glass, then
    shards of clothing/clods of earth
    covering a shovel.

    The autopsy-necromancy
    Nazi intrigue,
    playing polo with your
    opponent's skull
    - Carl Sagan's Broca's Brain
    red-bearded decapitation
    floating in a cloud of formaldehyde;
    sale of skeletons/white slavery
    filthy lucre all in one utilitarian
    lust for cadavers ... .

    Robber-birds pinioning their prey ...
    Mania to collect
    mania to re-collect,
    shadow-boxing logic
    rattle his bones
    he's only a pauper
    whom nobody owns.